This Just In: Newspapers’ Home Delivery Is Desperate
Last week, I signed up for home delivery of the Sunday New York Times after my parents’ gift to me of same ran out and I was tired of going to Starbucks every Sunday to find one. My Sunday delivery started with a Saturday paper delivered on Saturday, then a Sunday edition on Sunday, and then the Monday on Monday. I called to make sure I didn’t accidentally sign up for every day delivery. Nope. They just offer a free paper for 12 weeks to see if I like it so much I can’t live without it. Just the Sunday, please, I told the obsequious customer-service agent. Did I still receive an NYT yesterday and today? You bet. AND, today on my sidewalk was a totally unexpected copy of the Dallas Morning News. It’s like the circulation departments at newspapers shout to one another, “We found one! A reader! Go, go, go!”
I can’t wait to dispute the eventual bill.
Awards | Archives | Reprints | Custom Publishing | Jobs | Advertiser's Index
I take the DMN on weekends. I got a call from a DMN circ guy who offered to give me weekdays for the same price I’m paying now. I told him that’d be killing more trees than necessary, as I get the weekday paper at work. My response seemed to confuse him.
I recently had to fight the “I ONLY want the weekend paper” fight. The DMN apparently thought I was just kidding, or surely couldn’t be serious. I continued to receive the daily paper every day for more than three months – each day painfully depositing the paper, in its entirety, into my big green trash can outside.
They finally stopped sending the daily paper after I refused to pay the bill that they claimed I owed them. Their organizational skills are mind-numbing. And I’m not receiving the weekend paper anymore, either. Tim, you mind sharing Sunday’s crossword puzzle?
My daily DMN subscription ran out about 4 weeks ago, but I continue to get the paper each day. Should I tell the DMN folks?
I signed up for only 6 months of the weekend DMN and have been receiving it far longer without being sent anything about renewing. They have even called me several times to see if I want it all week for free after they expanded it to include Thursday. Except all I really want is Saturday and Sunday and, like Tim’s guy, each has seemed confused that I didn’t want more. Are you sure? Are you sure?? Are you sure???
josh, saying you only want the ‘weekend edition’ really means you want ‘daily delivery’ Its like saying something is ‘totally bad’… which actually means ‘good’.. see?
DM
I get it,so if I say I want the ‘daily edition’ I’ll get the ‘weekend edition’ and it would be really bad but that’s good.Where’s my rotary cell phone?
I’ve noticed the same with some magazines. Buy a year of Golf Digest, start getting renewal notices from month one, ignore all renewal notices, get magazine for 18 months, slowly become aware that you haven’t got magazine for a month or two, sign up for “special” deep discount rate. And repeat.
have you guys heard of this thing called the “internets”? I hear they have news there and it doesn’t tear down trees to make. Kind of a novel idea if you ask me.
who actually reads a hard copy of the newspaper anymore?
@Tinman — yes, do call them. I let my subscription lapse, thinking they would just stop ending them to me because I wasn’t paying for them. Nope, they kept charging me, and when I called to complain that I didn’t want the paper anymore, they chided me for not appreciating the “courtesy” they provided me. Took several calls of “I am not going to pay” before they backed off.
FYI, all — subscribe to the McKinney Courier-Gazette and get four Cinemark movie passes. Mostly pays for the subscription.
Exactly Monkey.
also, be careful out there when purchasing a DMN copy – only use cash. I’ve heard if you use your CC to buy a copy, you may actually be agreeing to a 12-month subscription of the “weekend edition”…
Yes, there are still a few of us who like to read the hard copy of the newspaper. I couldn’t start my morning without it.
there’s one place I like to read the hard copy of the paper and it isn’t at the kitchen table.
monkey god – you need a pda.
I’m not going to chance cross contamination.
We take both, daily. And the same newspaper guy throws them both. So it’s not like the NYT and the DMN are each sending a special guy to your neighborhood. He may even have grabbed the wrong one (I’ve received two DMNs and no NYT before). I don’t know if he throws the WSJ too (which I get at work), but I wouldn’t be surprised. Paper papers rock.
I get so tired of attempting to read the DMN online and having to “sign in”. I don’t want to create a user name and password for the news cult. Can’t I just read the news like I do on CNN without giving you my address?
I don’t remember if it still works for the DMN or not, but you used to be able to get a fake sign in (then just have your computer remember it) from http://www.bugmenot.com.
Mark,
Paper paper does beat rock, but scissors beats paper, as we all know.
I have a friend who delivers for the DMN. Each morning when he backs in to get his truck loaded, they give him at least twice as many as he needs for his route. They do this every time, on purpose, as a matter of course.
He makes $900 per month delivering the paper to subscribers. He makes THREE THOUSAND per month dropping the unrequested and unwanted crap off at a recycler.
Eye-popping, yet at the same time so not at all surprising…